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Your site has up to three copies, called environments:
  • Development: a copy for checking changes before visitors see them.
  • Staging: an optional second copy, for a final check or for showing a client.
  • Production: your live site, the one visitors see.
Deploying to Development or Staging never changes the live site. This guide shows where each one is on Northwind’s Pearl District site and how to check a change there.

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See what each environment shows

In the builder, click the branch menu at the top of the chat (it shows Your site), then Manage branches. The strip at the top shows each environment:
Development, outlined, with Deploy, Shows Your site (editing here), Deployed 18h ago and the version it runs; Staging is off for this project, with Turn on staging outlined; and Production, Always shows your published site, Not published yet

Development, Staging and Production

Shows says what Development is built from: Your site as you edit it, or one of your branches. Deployed says when it was last updated.

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Put your changes on Development

1

Deploy to Development

Click Deploy on the Development card (or Deploy at the top right of the builder, then Deploy on the Development row). It takes a few minutes.
2

Open it

Click Websites in the left rail, then ⋮ on the site’s card, then Hosting. On the Development tab, click Open. Your site opens at its Development address. Check the pages you changed, on your phone too.
Hosting: the Development tab, outlined; Development Environment, Status Active, Last Deployed 10/22/2026 8:16 PM; and Open, outlined

Open, on the Development tab

Happy with it? Publish your changes to put them on Production.

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Show a branch on Development

Working on a bigger change in a branch (see Try a Change on a Branch First)? Under Shows on the Development card, pick the branch, then click Deploy. Development now shows the branch, while Your site and the live site stay as they are. Set Shows back to Your site when you’re done.

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Add Staging for a second check

Staging is off until you switch it on. Click Turn on staging on the strip, or open Hosting, click the Staging tab, and click Enable. It then gets its own Shows and Deploy, just like Development.
Hosting: the Staging tab, Disabled, outlined; Staging Environment with Open and Enable, outlined

Switching on Staging

A common setup: Development shows your branch for your own checks, and Staging shows it for your client to approve.

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Good to know

  • Who can see them? Search engines don’t list Development or Staging, but anyone with the address can open them. Share it only with people who should see unfinished work.
  • Production can’t show a branch. It always shows your published site; merge the branch into Your site and publish to change it.